Quotes About Myth

Some people are so famous that the legends about them and the cultural aftermath of their life altogether obscure the real human being.

Obviously I have propagated the occasional myth about myself, because the real me, I'm not worth knowing.

Remember that cosmic fact and mental myth cannot occupy the same place at the same time, any more than two hands can occupy the same glove. So choose what is truly right for you.

There was the old myth of divine intervention. You blasphemed, and a lightning bolt struck you. That was a little steep too. If punishment is at all proportionate to the offense, then power becomes watered. The only way you generate the proper attitude of awe and obedience is through immense and disproportionate power.

Camelot, located nowhere in particular, can be anywhere.

Es posible que lo que llamamos pecado no sea sino la expresión mítica de la conciencia de nosotros mismos, de nuestra soledad.

The past is always an invented land.

Beautiful though it is, I find the language of epic unconvincing, for I cannot accept that the myths we tell about our first lives prepare us for the brighter, more authentic second lives that are meant to begin when we awake. Because—for people like me, at least—that second life is none other than the book in your hand. So pay close attention, dear reader. Let me be straight with you, and in return let me ask for your compassion.

Natasha's dance is an emblem of the view to be taken in this book: there is no quintessential national culture, only mythic images of it, like Natasha's version of the peasant dance.

Why else do we read fiction, anyway? Not to be impressed by somebody's dazzling language - or at least I hope that's not our reason. I think that most of us read these stories that we know are not 'true' because we're hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story.

Science Fiction has rivets, fantasy has trees.

There is no society that does not highly value fictional storytelling. Ever.

That's the way of the world: The princess can disappear, but the witch is forever.

Why else do we read anyway? I think most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not true because we're hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-real world. Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself.

Like Santa Claus. You adults pretend he doesn't exist, but we know that he really does.

The difference between science fiction and fantasy…is simply this, science fiction has rivets, fantasy has trees.

I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about ourself.

Most communities attempting to survive under irresistible pressure from a dominant culture develop a myth that allows them to believe they are somehow a special people. Chosen. Favored by the gods.

Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.

Never met such a Gorgon . . . I don't really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair.

Just because a man has died for it, does not make it true.

I don't know who started the myth that sheep are fluffy and white. They were more the color of an old mop and just as matted with dirt.

They are gone now. Fled, banished in death or exile, lost, undone. Over the land sun and wind still move to burn and sway the trees, the grasses. No avatar, no scion, no vestige of that people remains. On the lips of the strange race that now dwells there their names are myth, legend, dust.

I know they's a lots of things in a family history that just plain aint so. Any family. The stories get passed on and the truth gets passed over. As the saying goes.